Eight showcases and thirteen bands later…

Two Sheds at the Filter Showdown

We started at the Filter Showdown day party. The Two Sheds were playing their only show of SxSW there and as we know they’ve recently been an object of obsession. It’s funny that my first time seeing a local (SF/ Sacramento) band would be at SxSW, but what’re you going to do? Anyway, I’d only heard their myspace songs and I was hoping for something great based on those tracks–they’re really promising, after all. Well, their live set was what I was hoping for; it was awesome. I think a lot more people should know about this band.

Red Rocket at the Beast Bar

We ran over to the Beast Bar (I think that’s what it was called) for a set by Philly’s Red Rocket. I went because my best friend from second grade who I haven’t seen in years is in the band and I wanted to check them out, but I stayed because…well for the same reason. It would have been rude to just walk out. But, regardless of being rude or not, I didn’t want to walk out. The group plays high energy, angular, sometimes mathy rock. They were tight and their set was fun to watch. The front man goes all out in his singing. The band also has a nice thing where they juxtapose smooth elements (like a silky electric piano line) with more angular or harsher elements (like the drumming, synth or guitar lines, or singing). The band is playing a few more shows during SxSW if you want to check them out.

David Bazan at Jovita’s during the Twangfest day party

After that, it was a drive through some bad traffic across the river/ lake thing to Jovita’s for Twangfest where David Bazan was just starting when he walked in. I’ve seen him a lot of times (with Pedro the Lion, Headphones or solo) and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him do a bad show. I certainly have favorites among those, but they were all good. He didn’t break the trend at this show either. He was in solid form. He also played a few new songs and mentioned his next record should be coming out in July or August. I’m excited about that.

After Bazan it was back across the body of water to downtown and the Beauty Bar for the Bay Area Takeover where my friends from the Bay Bridged were organizing a fabulous event. We stayed for a while and saw a number of local bands. I’ll go down them in somewhat quick succession.

60 Watt Kid was doing their freakout pop with as much energy as they could muster. A lot of music in that genre, I find hit or miss and such was their set–parts of which were too much “freak out” and parts of which had a nice dose of pop in there as well.

The Blacks were really fun and energetic and had the sing best/ most energetic tambourine player I think I’ve ever seen. The frontwoman wasn’t bad either. I definitely didn’t mind seeing these guys.

Film School are sort of a known band. They were pretty tight and well practiced. They were pretty good but I remember finding their harmonic progressions sort of weird.

We were about to run off to go back to Twangfest when Christian of the Bay Bridged convinced us to stay for Von Iva with the promise that it’d be three girls rocking your socks off. We stayed and I can’t say I was sad with that decision. The girls certainly rocked and the frontwoman was very good, both at being sort of a rock star front woman and at singing. She was going out into the crowd and grabbing the front of people’s shirts and singing into their face, striking poses, the whole thing. Like I said, I’m glad we stayed.

Two Gallants were up next. They had the crowd going and people were pumped, but I just don’t get it, I guess; I don’t connect with them in the same way. The band certainly didn’t hold back, though, and put a lot of energy into their set.

After a break (getting some excellent Mexican at Curra’s and a delicious cupcake at Hey Cupcake!–how could I not stop at a place with a cupcake on top of an Airstream), we headed to the Secretly Canadian/ Jagjaguar (SC Jag for short) showcase at The Mohawk. We couldn’t get in, so we ended up watching the bands on the patio through the fence. Throw Me a Statue was inside so I didn’t get to hear that, but otherwise it wasn’t the worst thing. I’d seen Bodies of Water a couple weeks ago (at Noise Pop) and they still weren’t my thing. My only note about the the Evangelicals’ was “meh.”

Bon Iver on the other had was pretty great. I’ve been obsessed with For Emma, Forever Ago and this show was good like the album was. They pulled off the vocals, which seems like it’d be a tough task. I feel like being inside the actual venue might have been good for this show–less talking and closer to the performer. Bon Iver’s in an intimate sort of music and I’d like to see them again in an intimate setting.

I’ve seen Jens Lekman a few times now and he always puts on a fun show. He didn’t play all my favorite songs, for sure, but I liked the set and the setlist just fine and the show left me with a smile. “The Opposite of Hallelujah” was the highlight for me–I’ve always loved that song. Jens is becoming quite the showman as well–for instance, at one point his samples were playing some bells and in a very dramatic manner her pretended to play them way up in the air.

J Tillman (with Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes) at the Habana Calle 6 Patio for the Undertow showcase

We finished the night at a criminally underattended (it was semi-full–it should have been packed) J Tillman show at the Habana Calle 6 patio as part of the Undertow Showcase. I love J Tillman’s songs and seeing them live made them only more intimate and real. At one point he asked for requests and when he played mine, “Crooked Roof”, the weight of the song almost made me cry. Using words like amazing and incredible wouldn’t be exaggerating at all when it comes to this show.

Gotta run. More shows to see!

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 9:28 am Posted by adrian in SF bay area, live, photos. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.